Massachusetts testing air near elementary school for contaminants

School officials should know before students return to class Monday whether the air quality at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School poses any threat to their health.

D. Craig MacCormack

School officials should know before students return to class Monday whether the air quality at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School poses any threat to their health.

The state Department of Environmental Protection again sent a team to the school Friday to test the air after recent testing showed an underground flow of contamination from nearby General Chemical Corp. was moving closer to the school and that levels were higher than the last round of tests in March.

They focused their testing in and around the gym, which is the closest part of the school to the well behind the building and next to General Chemical.

General Chemical was supposed to conduct air-quality tests at the school Friday but couldn't get its contractor set up quickly enough.

"Hopefully everything will work out and we'll hear that everything is OK," School Committee Chairman Phil Dinsky said.

Superintendent Eugene Thayer and Wilson Principal Robin Welch were at the school during the testing, Dinsky said.

Air-quality test results should be back by tonight, at which time they will be reported to Thayer, state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joe Ferson said.

Efforts to reach Thayer Friday were unsuccessful.

Ferson doesn't expect the school will have to be closed, saying the slab roof and new construction lessen the potential for serious problems. School officials could close the gym if the test shows high contamination levels, Dinsky said.

After two consecutive tests showed the increased contamination level in the well behind Woodrow Wilson School, General Chemical this week decided to shut down a pumping treatment system that has apparently reversed the direction of the underground contaminants, which had previously traveled south toward Sherborn.

The increased contamination levels were the only ones in the more than 70 tests of the area behind Woodrow Wilson School, state officials said last week.

Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection and the Board of Health will join the School Committee at its Dec. 4 meeting for a discussion on the air quality.

Dinsky was impressed that officials came out for the air-quality tests on such short notice, especially on the day after Thanksgiving.

"We couldn't have asked for a better response," he said.

Dinsky said he has not heard much from parents of Woodrow Wilson students since the state first discussed the increased contamination level last week with selectmen.

Wilson PTO members could not be reached Friday.

MetroWest Daily News writer Craig MacCormack can be reached at 508-626-4429 or cmaccorm@cnc.com.